A dataset of land use type changes in the Yellow River Delta (1976–2024)

The Yellow River Delta is the youngest and most complete wetland ecosystem in China, with rich ecological service value. Due to multiple factors such as human activities, changes in water and sediment flux, climate change, and invasive alien species, the land use types in the Yellow River Delta are undergoing sustained and significant changes. This dataset is primarily based on 11 temporal phases of Landsat satellite imagery from 1976 to 2024, supplemented with high-resolution imagery and ground-truth survey data. An object-oriented approach was employed to interpret and classify land use types in the Yellow River Delta. The results indicate that the land use classification achieved an overall accuracy exceeding 80%, with Kappa coefficients greater than 0.8. The classification outcomes were further refined and manually corrected, ultimately resulting in a long-term vector dataset of land use for the Yellow River Delta spanning 1976–2024. This dataset serves as an important data source for investigating the evolution of landscape patterns, assessing regional ecological security, and supporting biodiversity conservation and enhancement in the Yellow River Delta.